Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Just in time for the holiday party season we have this report of a planned DUI check by the blog "Oakland North".  The basics are that Oakland Police are planning a DUI check point set up "somewhere between the Oakland / Berkeley Boarder, which I take to mean College Avenue, or Telegraph Avenue, or Claremont Avenue.   That's the heart of the North Oakland dining district.   Here's the rest of the Oakland North post: The DUI checkpoint show will be coming to an intersection near you, on December 12, somewhere along the North Oakland and Berkeley border. While the casual, wine-with-dinner drinker and driver might do well to mark that date on the calendar and avoid getting behind the wheel at all, it’s worth revisiting that fuzzy, ill-understood question of just how much drinking it does take to meet the fateful 0.08% blood alcohol limit. MORE   

This is from the Oakland Police Department.  According to my sources, the checkpoints will almost certainly be on or near Broadway, and not far from Luka's bar and restaurant and Sweets Lounge on Broadway -- the areas with the highest traffic on Friday night. Personally, I think the best solution for the grant money funding this program is to have a free late-night shuttle service that goes from specific points around Lake Merritt and to stop areas near each bar.  That would be a great alternative to driving.  But this excuse to arrest someone is not solving the problem at all.  As Willie Brown said in this video , "Drink.  Drink.  Drink.  Then drive drunk so I can represent you."  In fact, San Francisco doesn't have a checkpoint system; most people take cabs which are in abundance.  But also people do drive, some of them elected officials and wealthy people, and nothing ever happens to them in San Francisco.  Look at the case of Harry Denton! In Oakland, where